1. Serving up success in the hospitality sector -
How HSO helped KSG provide the foundation
for dynamic growth
WWW.HSO-EQUIPMENT.COM
CHALLENGES
SOLUTION
BENEFITS
The restaurant and hospitality services sector is a fast-moving and highly
competitive environment where being able to deliver operational efficiencies
and react quickly to dynamic changes in the market is critical to driving business
advantage and building an edge over rivals.
As a market-leading provider of restaurant and
hospitality services and contract catering, Irish-
owned and operated, KSG Catering has built a
reputation for excellent food and outstanding
service.
KSG serves twelve million customers annually in 120
locations and employing upwards of 1,100 personnel –
and its keynote, diversity. KSG restaurants feed customers
in healthcare, education, pharmaceutical, manufacturing,
retail, travel, entertainment, business and industry sectors.
It operates everything from newsagents based at hospital
sites to independent style coffee shops to fine dining and
hospitality in blue chip companies.
KSG has differentiated itself on many levels from its
competitors by sourcing fresh locally produced ingredients
and a purpose built training centre with City & Guilds
accreditation. Their people are the best in the industry and
they have been leaders in providing pioneering wellness
programmes to their clients. It has been these core
principles that have been the catalyst to their success.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Driven by the need to support ongoing growth across
these diverse target markets, KSG has for many years
leveraged enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
to drive operational efficiencies across the business.
Initially, this was in the form of the Microsoft Axapta
solution and this met KSG’s needs well over a number
of years.
KSG was very happy with the functionality but as
business growth accelerated over time, the system
was increasingly struggling to keep pace. KSG decided
it needed to make a change but was keen to stay in
the Microsoft fold and made the decision to migrate
to the next generation of ERP software in the form of
Microsoft Dynamics AX.
“We had reaped the rewards of working with Microsoft
Axapta and we achieved extensive benefits including
far-reaching operational efficiencies and cost savings
from using it,” said David White, ERP Software Manager
at KSG.
DAVID NAGLE,
PARTNER CHANNEL MANAGER,
MICROSOFT BUSINESS SOLUTIONS,
MICROSOFT
“KSG is reaping the rewards from implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX and is achieving
operational efficiencies across all areas of the business from finance to back office warehousing
and logistics, to front end customer service. HSO’s expertise in delivering this kind of capability
has been key to the success of this project. It has a flexible approach and has worked hard to
understand KSG’s challenges and business objectives and to ensure they get the most from their
investment in Dynamics AX software.”
Migrated to the next generation of
ERP software in the form of Microsoft
Dynamics AX
Driving efficiencies across the
company’s key operations
Migrating through new versions of the
ERP software
Long term business scalability
Greater business productivity as a
result of improved processes
Increased efficiencies through
extended capabilities of the solution
Keeping pace with the ongoing
growth of the company
Operational agility

2. “Therefore, when it came to upgrading our system, the approach was
more of an evolutionary process than a complete revolutionary change.
We wanted to remain within the Microsoft fold and so switching to the
next-generation solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX was the logical choice.
KSG was also crystal clear from the beginning that it wanted HSO as
its implementation and development partner for the new Microsoft
Dynamics AX project. It already had a longstanding relationship with
HSO and it had built a close trust-based relationship. It also valued HSO’s
experience and expertise in this area. It knew that HSO had developed
a proven methodology from running many hundreds of successful
Dynamics AX projects over a number of years. Moreover, it valued the
company’s support service and its depth of expertise of the retail sector
globally.
“We had an ERP system that was in place for ten years and that had firmly
bedded in, that we manipulated in our own way to be able to extract the
data in a format that was required by the business and if HSO had tried to
impose an approach on us, it simply would not have worked.”
THE SOLUTION
One of HSO’s main roles was to facilitate the migration of KSG through
different versions of the solution. “HSO was our guide through this
evolutionary process. They have been key in streamlining the whole
process for us.” continued David White. “The HSO expertise coupled with
the stability and strength of Microsoft Dynamics AX has given us complete
confidence. We now have a safe reliable platform in place on which to
operate ERP. And it’s flexible too. That’s key to us as a business as we are
expanding fast and with dynamic business models that continuously
evolve, the implemented solution has the capabilities to manage.”
Further underlining the confidence that KSG has in HSO, the actual
switchover itself from Axapta to the multi-tenanted privately hosted cloud
solution, Dynamics AX, was achieved on a ‘big bang’ basis, with KSG
switching off the old system on one day and switching the new one on
the next. With the assistance of HSO, KSG devised a training strategy and
competency centre that delivered a smooth operational transition with no
interruption to weekly KPI reporting.
THE BENEFITS
KSG is already using the platform extensively to drive efficiencies across
many of the company’s key operations. All of its finance functions from
purchase orders right through to the generation of the profit and loss
(P&L) accounts are handled through Microsoft Dynamics AX as well as
including the retail-warehousing element of the business and weekly
KPI reporting is managed over the platform.
All of this amounts to a significant expansion of the capabilities that
KSG had enjoyed with its previous ERP solutions. Once again, HSO’s
understanding of and expertise in the technology has been key here.
The company has also played an invaluable role in what can be the
one of the biggest banana skins on any ERP project - handling the
migration of data from one system to another.
HSO’s extensive experience of working on ERP projects has proved
invaluable in working with and integrating where necessary different
data formats and structures; in helping KSG assess which types of data
needed to be moved from one platform to another and in cleansing
vast volumes to ensure optimum data quality. In addition, the company
has played a critical role in training up the KSG team on all the new
Dynamics functionality, processes and potentials.
KSG provides restaurant services for 2500 employees at Microsoft Ireland
HSO’s influence has extended beyond training and advice into a more
focused strategic consultancy role at KSG. It has for example, carried
out an extensive gap analysis project, designed to compare desired
performance with actual performance and consider areas where ERP
can be effectively applied to help to close the gap between the two.
Working alongside KSG’s senior IT decision-makers, HSO is focused
on development work to embellish the system and improve existing
business processes or even add new ones where required. The focus
of this joint approach is on using technology where applicable to help
people and the wider business automate their approaches to drive
efficiencies and achieve their operational goals.
It is a focus that has paid dividends so far with the company continuing
to expand across many different sectors. KSG’s growth will continue
to be built on firm foundations. The Microsoft Dynamics AX platform
provides that assurance and thanks at least in part to the help that
HSO provides, it’s a platform that also supports operational agility, fast
time to insight and the ability to deliver efficiencies that together drives
long-term business success.
“HSO was extremely patient with us in terms
of the project management, training and
consultancy they provided. They took time to
understand and adapt to our business needs
rather than attempting to impose their own
solution on us which impressed us.”
DAVID WHITE, KSG - ERP SOFTWARE MANAGER
“HSO was adaptable to our needs from
the start even while guiding us through
the process of what was new in Microsoft
Dynamics AX. It was a big challenge but HSO
rose to it well.”
DAVID WHITE, KSG - ERP SOFTWARE MANAGER

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E: info-uk@hso.com
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About HSO
HSO is a leading provider of innovative enterprise business
solutions that improve the results of our clients. Founded in 1989,
HSO specialises in implementing, integrating, optimising and
maintaining enterprise solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics
AX, CRM and Office365.
HSO works with multinational enterprises in industries such as
Distribution, Retail, Manufacturing and Services.
Learn more at www.hso.com
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